Third-seeded Victoria Azarenka won 12 straight games to finish off the opening match on centre court at the Australian Open in 67 minutes on Monday, a 6-1, 6-0 victory over Heather Watson of Britain.

Azarenka, one of six women who can finish atop the rankings depending on results at Melbourne Park, is coming off a win at the Sydney International last week and is high on confidence.

The Sydney champion has gone on to reach the Australian Open final six times since 1997, winning twice. Li Na won in Sydney last year but lost the Australian Open final to Kim Clijsters. Both Clijsters and Li were in action later Monday.

Azarenka beat Li in the Sydney final on Friday night and is starting to gain a following in Melbourne’s Chinese community.

“After beating Li Na, a lot of Chinese people started recognizing me,” the 22-year-old from Belarus said of her experience at a Chinese restaurant. “That’s a plus.”

She’ll get more local attention in coming days, with a second-round match against Australian wild-card entry Casey Dellacqua, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Serbia’s Bojana Jovanovski.

India’s Sania Mirza will begin her campaign against Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova today.

The tournament assumes importance for world No. 105 Sania as she needs to improve her ranking to be eligible for a direct entry to the London Olympics.

After Somdev Devvarman’s withdrawal from the tournament due to injury, Saina is the lone Indian in the singles event.

In the doubles, Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi will be contenders with different partners. Bhupathi has paired up with Rohan Bopanna while Paes will partner with Redek Stepanak.